Why do people here frown so much upon random action videos? Or do they actually like action videos? I ask because all I see is a bunch of sentimental dramatic stuff being released these days an not any good action videos. Plus isn't action simply supposed to get your adrenaline pumping with the video? Not many action videos have room for a well rounded story. Very few are able to pull it off and the best one I've seen (IMO) is Whisper of the Beast, which actually seperated itself in a few parts to pull off the story. Falling Higher also had a decent story too (to give credit where credit is due).

It's simple. Even when it's mindless action vid, it needs some theme or some story, be it VERY simple. Most vids fail at this too. Just because it's from one anime, doesn't mean that you can throw in scenes randomly.

And the second point - most of the editors edit it with too fast cuts. When you cut it too fast, you get lost in it. there's a reason why action scenes in most anime/movies don't have 5 cuts per second. Unfortunately, most editors don't realize this and just cut to every beat in the fast, action song, and you can't orientate in it at all. It might look nice, but it doesn't give any sense.

Because of this, the vids are hard to do. And because of so many action vids that were done wrong (plus you have to account all the Naruto/Bleach action vids that don't help too), they are kinda underrated nowadays.

Only time I don't seem to get biased towards random action seems to be in MEP's cause usually they are following a concept set by the coordinator and all the tracks flow with each other in this way… Well usually they do…

"The people cannot be [...] always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to [...] the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to public liberty. What country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned [...] that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."-Thomas Jefferson

There doesn't necessarily have to be a story, but at least some sort of cohesive theme to keep things together. The only action videos that can get away with a total lack of concept are the ones that are edited flawlessly (or close enough that it doesn't make a difference, e.g. Ileia's Don't Break; hell, any of her action videos really). Since action videos are more concerned about things like visual flow and cuts, a screw-up there could mean the whole thing will fall apart without some sort of other excuse (such as a concept) to make up for it.

That vid was only 1/3 Magical Girls, it wasn't the focus, sigh... why do people make these conclusions -_- Fragrance just tried to create a light-fun video to an upbeat-seiyuu like song using anime girls, since they fit the type of song it was, ie a vid which just goes along with the music. Marko can correct me if I'm wrong or something but I feel it inappropriate to label it as a 'focus on magical girls'.

OropherZero wrote:That vid was only 1/3 Magical Girls, it wasn't the focus, sigh... why do people make these conclusions -_- Fragrance just tried to create a light-fun video to an upbeat-seiyuu like song using anime girls, since they fit the type of song it was, ie a vid which just goes along with the music. Marko can correct me if I'm wrong or something but I feel it inappropriate to label it as a 'focus on magical girls'.

Well even if that's true there was still a focus point. They DID focus on girls. I'm not labeling it as such if its something they did regardless of whether "they were trying to create a light-fun video to an upbeat seiyuu like song" or not.

Obviously it would not of been the same video if there was no focus on girls, which created the connection to the song.

"The people cannot be [...] always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to [...] the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to public liberty. What country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned [...] that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."-Thomas Jefferson

I don't remember when action videos became softcore pornos about female heroines living troubled lifes, but it needs to seriously stop. I don't have a problem with a video that would actually show Yoko kicking ass, or Revy, Lucy or Seras tearing shit up. For some reason though, action videos don't seem to need any gore or badass manly shit in them anymore. No real fighting, just fighting from stupid ass fanservice or comedy animes, even Ranma action videos from 1998 were more serious and had more adrenaline rush in them than these new-age garbage action AMVs.

Now don't get me wrong, a different approach to action is fine by me, but then it's comedy action or porno action or drama action but it's not raw action with the purpose of adrenaline production.

On the other hand we have people from 2002 just making the same action videos over and over again. Cowboy Bebop Movie, Advent Children, FLCL, Animatrix, KARAS, Akira over and over and over and over and the same music and the same music and the same music and the same music. No evolution at all.

For me it's not surprising at all that nobody cares about action videos anymore, because there are no good action AMV creators anymore.

How about we take a step back and consider why the fuck everyone is tryingto shove videos into categories such as the narrow little box called "Action."

I understand the benefits of Labeling and Categorization, but don't people see a problem with this!?!

Now everyone is becoming more and more concerned with videos fitting into the right category, and that's all what it's about now... I sent my random thought to a convention a couple months ago regarding what category my videos should be put into. I think the one in question was http://www.animemusicvideos.org/video/159329, and I almost wanted to put it into Action. This obviously would be wrong because it's more upbeat, and uses School Rumble, so it's a bit more comedic than anything else; But it's fast, has a lot of sync, and is intended to get your adrenaline pumping, so what separates this from a 'real' Action video. Obviously not the lack of explosions and gun shots. [I'm still not entirely sure myself, but I think it has something to do with lack of Suspense, and lack of seriousness].

Anyways, that video got put into Comedy and got creamed by the competition. Why?Because it didn't fit the bill.It didn't fit into the narrow little box called 'Comedy' either.

We are doing this with everything these days. When I got my BSc and had to declare my Major as Biology, I got really annoyed because everyone thinks I'm some sort of Bio guy-- when really I consider myself to be more of a Generalist. And we are doing the same thing with AMV's. We evaluate an AMV based on the predetermined categories that we know... or rather think we know... when realistically this is a farce. My concept of Action may be entirely different from someone else' concept of Action. It's true that there are aspects to each category considered to be universal [romance has a relationship, comedy is funny... etc] but this really screws up peoples preconception of a video. They expect to see Suspense in an Action video [because that's what people have been conditioned to expect] but instead they get my own synced-to-hell-because-that's-what-I-like style of Action video because Action is the only category I can put most of my videos into.

I only make videos for myself [to a certain extent], so none of this really matters to me, but shouldn't people be doing the opposite? Instead of trying to make/find videos that fit a certain genre, shouldn't we diverge/converge to make/find videos that are different and don't necessarily fit the bill. Sure this makes it more convenient to find what you are looking for, but does that mean you will find the type of video you expect every time? Does that mean you can complain whenever you encounter a video that doesn't match what you expected? [well ok, you can always complain :/]

But what I've noticed lately is that the term "Random Action Video" is starting to become synonymous with "Sync-Whore Videos" [for lack of better terminology], and if everyone is sooo inclined to categorize everything, maybe those videos need their own grouping... perhaps WITHOUT USING the adjective ACTION, because it changes peoples expectations of a video entirely. I've contemplated simply checking off the "Other" category for many of my videos, but then people are just going to try to fit my video into one of the predetermined categories after they have watched it. If people would evaluate videos on face-value, we wouldn't need to categorize anything. Obviously this would make it difficult to find videos with those universal aspects that we like [and hence categorize by], but it would make evaluation/judgment more subjective, less bias, more critical, more reasonable, and fair.

What might not make a good Action video, can make a superb Random Action Video.